Virgin won't accept my Amex UK balance transfer

Zephir-1

I am having trouble with Virgin Money Credit Card.
I am trying to move money from Amex UK to Virgin Money Credit Card.
It's been one hell of a stressful ride trying to activate my Virgin card but I finally managed that.
Now the online tool is saying it does not recognise my Amex UK card number.
The Virgin Money agent said my Amex UK is set to Mexico region.
Several Amex agents all day have confirmed this is not true. It is correctly set to UK, as I suspected being a British card with British currency.
Has anyone else experience this nonsensical situation? Any ideas on how to overcome this?

boo_star

Do you have any relationship with Mexico?

Ben8282

I was not aware that Amex cards were set to specific regions, but even if your card was somehow 'set to Mexico region', how could Virgin money know this? What does this mean anyway? If you mean that Virgin are saying the card was issued in Mexico, your terminology is somewhat strange
What are the first 6 digits of your Amex card number please? This will clearly establish the country of issue.

MallyGirl

When you say 'move money from Amex to Virgin' do you actually mean balance transfer debt from Amex to Virgin? Lots of cc companies won't balance transfer from Amex

Vortigern

Zephir-1 wrote: »

I am having trouble with Virgin Money Credit Card.
I am trying to move money from Amex UK to Virgin Money Credit Card.
Now the online tool is saying it does not recognise my Amex UK card number.

The usual problem with balance transfers from Amex is that Amex has a 15 digit card number. VM's online tool is expecting to see 16 digits, so you have to use VM's call centre.

Zephir-1 wrote: »

The Virgin Money agent said my Amex UK is set to Mexico region.

This may sound far-fetched but perhaps the VM person misheard you. When you said you want to balance transfer from (an) Amex card, they thought you said from a Mexican card? If you try again, say "American Express" rather than "Amex"

vimyridge

I have balance transferred money from Amex to a Virgin Credit Card so its not that

newbie8

Zephir-1 wrote: »

I am having trouble with Virgin Money Credit Card.
I am trying to move money from Amex UK to Virgin Money Credit Card.
It's been one hell of a stressful ride trying to activate my Virgin card but I finally managed that.
Now the online tool is saying it does not recognise my Amex UK card number.
The Virgin Money agent said my Amex UK is set to Mexico region.
Several Amex agents all day have confirmed this is not true. It is correctly set to UK, as I suspected being a British card with British currency.
Has anyone else experience this nonsensical situation? Any ideas on how to overcome this?

I am assuming you opened a Sterling Pound AMEX Card. Even though this is the case. AMEX originated from USA and they don't actually issue the card in UK. It can be issued in Mexico, USA etc.. (I know Mexio isn't in USA ).

You can google your BIN and see where it was issued. It sounds funny but it's true. As for BT from AMEX to Virgin Money, it can be done but because the AMEX (I am assuming) a 15 digit card number it can't be done the conventional way (like a 16 digit card number). You have to call up Customer Services and ask them what the procedure is to BT from your AMEX to Virgin Card.

Hope this helps.

Moireach

MallyGirl said:

Lots of cc companies won't balance transfer from Amex

I've had no issue transferring to Tesco and to Natwest from Amex.

payless

Is it ( or was it ) an Amex charge card rather than credit card 

l8888

I've had the same issue. I have a UK-issued AMEX but Virgin Money think it is based in Australia and so are refusing to make the balance transfer.

The reason for this is that Virgin Money are very strict about BIN numbers. The first 6 digits of a card is supposed to tell you the issuer bank and country. Any card starting 377383, for example, is supposed to be an Australia Amex card. In reality, it seems Amex don't follow this strictly and so issue UK cards with Australian (or Mexican) BIN numbers.

I think this is mainly a Virgin Money issue as they have set up a lazy system for trying to identidy cards issued abroad that doesn't work in practice. I know balance transfers to MBNA are fine.

y.pango

@l8888 - I was wondering if you ever managed to get the Balance transfer from Amex to Virgin Money sorted?

I'm interested in applying for a Virgin Money credit card to use their balance transfer from my UK issued 377383 card and called up Virgin Money today to enquire. The person on the phone checked the BIN number and found two websites starting Australia and one stating the UK. She spoke to two of her supervisors who said that they couldn't guarantee that the transfer would work. Upon asking more questions, she found notes about 15-digit Amex cards which basically stated that balance transfer process may not work automatically, so customers need to call up to request for it to be done; the request is sent to a different team to review and call back to confirm. So because one of the websites stated UK issued credit card, apparently it should be ok for me if I were to call up to organise the balance transfer. 

I found the payspacemagazine BIN website which states 377383 is a UK card - many other websites state Aus

Any info will be great!

Thanks in advance.